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by Nick Breckon Jan 09, 2008 5:35am CST
A resolution of 2880x900. Dimensions equivalent to two 24" widescreen monitors standing end-to-end. DLP rear projection on a curved screen, with OLED illumination. An insignificant .02ms response time.
Alienware's new curved monitor caused quite a stir when it was revealed here at CES. It seemed like the natural evolution of monitor technology had finally arrived. After all, the human eye is curved, so why shouldn't our monitors curve too? What a great idea.
So is it that great? Well, it's as quick as advertised, and as curved. Not that any of that means much right now, because this monitor has major problems.
Pulling up to the beast, the Crysis demo loaded and ready to go, I was Malcolm in Jurassic Park, thoroughly impressed by the solid picture. The son of a bitch did it. The jungle perfectly warping around my field of vision, I was hooked. I was counting the dollars in my bank account, and compounding interest.
And then, like Genaro to the toilet, I moved, and ruined everything.
You see, three clearly-visible bars immediately appeared upon strafing, a symptom of overlapping projection. To me, they were much more visible than early reports seemed to indicate. These weren't the thin, barely-noticeable lines of a Trinitron, but thick white bars that bled through the image, completely ruining any wow-factor the monitor had accrued in my geek heart.
Alienware says these bars will be gone by the time it hits production. They'd better be.
Another issue is the image quality. While the picture seemed sharp, it lacked color depth, appearing altogether faded. And ultimately, I care far more about image quality than the shape of the box.
Lastly, the thing is huge. It absolutely dominates the length of a desk, with a footprint larger than T-Rex. More importantly, it is significantly weighed down by a large amount of projector-filled depth in the back end. Gamers will have to think hard before tossing aside their slim, sexy LCDs for a monitor with so much junk in the trunk.
And at the end of the day, like so many other gadgets at CES, I was left wondering: do I really need that yet?
CES was dominated by another display technology--3D glasses. Yes, the technology that has moved from gimmick to money-maker in the movie industry is still being pushed on the PC. And though it has progressed since the 90s, 3D gaming monitors and glasses still haven't gotten to the point of usefulness. Every pair I tried left me disappointed and cross-eyed.
In the same way, I'm not sure this monitor is ready. It will undoubtedly be too expensive to even contemplate, requiring an even costlier PC to run a game at such a massive resolution. Beyond the obvious flaws that need to be addressed, it's just plain bulky--and while I wouldn't place the curving monitor into the realm of pure gimmick, in person, it only really qualifies as "neat."
If you want one anyway, I can't blame you. My shelves are full of neat, expensive, and obsolete technology too. Keep your eyes open late into this year.
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